Hannes, the tyrannical head of his family, is turning 70. Anne, his second wife and stepmother to his children, has invited everyone to a reconciliatory celebration. But the festivities are marred by arguments as old wounds reopen.

His three childless sons, Max, Gregor and Frederik, along with their partners and Hannes’s ex-wife Renate – who’s flown in from Paris for the occasion – are all together again. No one yet suspects that this stately family home in Berlin is about to become a place where both truth and catastrophe reigns.

Decades-old arguments and disagreements have kept the family members estranged. Though on the surface, they all seem happy to see each other again, not one of them truly cares about the other. Like so much else at the Westhoff residence – the big house, the idyllic scenery, love – it’s all just for show.